Intro: Nature inspires!

I would like to start my first blog post by telling you all how thankful and excited I am to attend the World Business Council For Sustainable Development Council Meeting later in October!

Who am I? My name is Alexandra Ursu and I am a second year Business Studies Student. I identify myself with the work of UNICEF, which is the reason why I became a proud UNICEF volunteer and Chief Information Officer of Unicef On Campus Lancaster University. How would I describe myself? Ambitious, hardworking, open minded, passionate about the world we all live in.

I grew up on the seaside, surrounded by the breath-taking views of the Romanian nature, which I had the privilege to admire from an early age during our family trips. With the passage of time, I had the chance to discover other natural beauties such as the Greek Islands, Provence or the Scottish Highlands. I remember me being so amazed by the power of nature and wishing that future generations will still have the chance to enjoy those landscapes. I feel this was the starting point of my interest in sustainability.

Unfortunately, the world we live in today has to face many challenges such as food and energy waste, high carbon footprint, pollution, and some companies contribute to the destruction of our environment without even considering their harmful impact on our planet. The nature of my university studies will place me in key positions at company-level someday, therefore I feel that my World Business Council For Sustainable Development experience will offer me the perfect background in assuring that those companies will address those problems and deliver sustainable businesses.

However, it is difficult for a company to find the balance between generating profits and sustainability, but it is not impossible! At least nine companies generate a billion dollars or more in revenue annually, coming from sustainable services or products. Among them, Unilever, General Electric, Ikea, Nike, Toyota, Tesla. How is that possible? The key hides in their business strategies, that shifted from a traditional approach of seeing sustainability as costly and time-consuming to a more open-minded view: sustainability as a mean of saving resources and lowering the bills.

Follow us in our journey to a more sustainable business world to find out more about how companies can change the impact they have on our planet and do not hesitate to use the Comment section below to start a discussion!